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CDC Helps Launch Healthy People 2020 Collaboration

Global Communications Center
at CDC.

On March 17, CDC hosts the first of five Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regional meetings to discuss the Healthy People 2020 framework. Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for promoting health and preventing disease.

Since 1979, Healthy People has set and monitored national health objectives to meet a broad range of health needs, encourage collaboration across sectors, guide individuals toward making informed health decisions, and measure the impact of our prevention activity. Every 10 years, HHS leverages scientific insights and lessons learned from the past decade, along with new knowledge of current data, trends, and innovations. Healthy People 2020 will reflect assessments of major risks to health and wellness, changing public health priorities, and emerging technologies related to our nation's health preparedness and prevention.

Motivate, measure, and focus

The Healthy People 2020 process will build from objectives and goals set for Healthy People 2010. The Healthy People 2010 was designed to achieve two overarching goals:

Goal 1: Increase Quality and Years of Healthy Life: The first goal of Healthy People 2010 is to help individuals of all ages increase life expectancy and improve their quality of life.

Goal 2: Eliminate Health Disparities: The second goal of Healthy People 2010 is to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population.

The goals and objectives become more focused as they relate to the leading health indicators. For example, focus area goals for Healthy People 2010 include the following:

Cancer: Reduce the number of new cancer cases as well as the illness, disability, and death caused by cancer.

Disability and Secondary Conditions: Promote the health of people with disabilities, prevent secondary conditions, and eliminate disparities between people with and without disabilities in the U.S. population.

Food Safety: Reduce foodborne illnesses.

Strength in collaboration

The Healthy People process is inclusive; its strength is directly tied to collaboration. By hosting the first Healthy People 2020 regional meeting at CDC's Tom Harkin Global Communication Center, the facility's advance technology offers not only the CDC's workforce but people across the nation a unique opportunity to collaborate, according to meeting planners.

"We are on the brink of what is both an exciting and a challenging time at HHS, as we undertake the development of the Nation's health objectives for the next decade," noted Carter Blakey, Senior Public Health Advisor, Department of Health and Human Services" Healthy People 2020 must evolve along with the nation's changing public health needs and priorities."

During the Atlanta meeting, hundreds of partners from Regions III and IV will attend in person at the CDC Roybal Campus, but hundreds more will be able to participate by Envision, IPTV, and through Web streaming at the Healthy People 2020 Internet site, which will include closed captioning.

The purpose of the meeting on March 17 is to obtain public perspectives on the framework that will be used to organize Healthy People 2020 objectives. CDC's health protection goals align with the nation's goals as expressed in HHS's Healthy People goals and they will also support Healthy People 2020 goals. CDC's Office of Strategy and Innovation is working with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to host the regional meetings and build the Healthy People 2020 framework.

HHS is convening the five regional meetings to discuss developing the framework for Healthy People 2020, the national health goals for the next decade. Detailed information is available for the regional meetings taking place in Atlanta (March 17), San Francisco (April 1), Fort Worth (April 14), Chicago (April 30), New York City (May 14), and Bethesda (May 28) at the Healthy People 2020 Web site: www.healthypeople.gov. A sixth meeting is planned in the Washington, DC area (Bethesda, MD) to gain input from national organizations and other interested groups and individuals. The intended audiences for the regional meetings include members of the following: